Electric Cello...How do you properly record.

[Aram9012]

Hello everyone;

I am a film composer scoring a documentary. I'll most likely be engineering the solo sessions myself. I'll be having a electric cellist come in, and I've never recorded one before. Is there any common practices as far as recording it goes. Do you usually mic an amp? Or plug it right into something. Budget aside, what do people with unlimited resources do? (I can rent anything needed) I'm looking for a dark haunting sort of sound. A little distorted and echoey. Even post recording tips are welcomed.

I've recorded plenty of guitars in my day, is it at all similar? I have a line 6 POD pro. And I'll be renting my favorite eq/comp/pre the Millennia STT1 Origin. Any tips at all would be greatly appreciated.

Best;

-Aram

[listentommy]

Depending on the sound you're going for and the type of pickup on the cello...

Is it a Zeta type Cello? If so Boyd Tinsely of Dave Matthews Band goes direct in the studio with a Siemens/Telefunken V72 Preamp unless he's using it as a Midi controller.

The answer is totally subjective... I would embrace the fact that an electric cello will never sound like a Real Cello so I don't know if there is a "proper" way to record...

I would go to a cool tape delay or tube echo unit, like a Roland RE201 and a Princeton Reverb, then add maybe some Stereo Width in the box.


-Tommy

[nulldevice]

If it's got a decent piezo pickup on it, run it through a hi-Z preamp and go direct, then process appropriately. I've found with electric strings, micing an amp doesn't get you much unless you want the amp sound.

Most electric strings have a kind of rubbery sound to them, so you'll need to be prepared to EQ and reverb that sort of thing.

Of course, if you have a good, dedicated e-cellist, they may have their own rig and their own "sound" that involves effects, amps, etc.

[Yfoiler]

Originally Posted by nulldevice

If it's got a decent piezo pickup on it, run it through a hi-Z preamp and go direct, then process appropriately. I've found with electric strings, micing an amp doesn't get you much unless you want the amp sound.

Most electric strings have a kind of rubbery sound to them, so you'll need to be prepared to EQ and reverb that sort of thing.

Of course, if you have a good, dedicated e-cellist, they may have their own rig and their own "sound" that involves effects, amps, etc.

Uh... I think you're a wee bit late. This post is from 2009!
All that being said, I would have recorded two tracks at the same time. One with whatever the electric cellist brought to the date, and the other one completely dry. I would then later use a reamp box on the dry track and play around with it until I got what I wanted. And...you might get lucky and just like what the cellist brought....you never know.